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Friday, June 26, 2015

Last Chance Before Summer

I basically work everyday between writing and the family business, so my son and I took off on Tuesday for Disneyland and California Adventure. We have annual passes and it was the last few days before the summer blackout until August.

I remember him sitting on my shoulders to watch the Electric Parade and now he drives and towers over my shoulders. It seems that neither his wife or my husband have quite the same love we do of going to the amusement parks over and over again and they let their passes expire long ago.

Since we go to Disneyland and California Adventure a lot, we have gotten into the habit of doing the same things, eating at the same places and waiting until they announce even Main Street is closed before finally staggering out to the parking lot tram.

So, we decided to throw away all our usual plans and do something different. It’s amazing, but true. I have been going to Disneyland since 1969 and yet there was an attraction I had never been on. The canoes. It certainly isn’t a ride as you have paddle to keep moving and it’s hard. When you are on the water surrounded by trees and greenery, it feels pretty authentic, but then as you come around the river boat dock and see all the people and the shops and rides, there’s no denying where you are.

We rushed and got the last raft to what used to be Tom Sawyer’s Island and now ha some kind of pirate name. We had basically ten minutes to go through the whole place which made for a lot of speed walking.

Back on the mainland, we went to some eatery that was on the water and if you sat in the right place, it looked like you were in the wilderness. We ate fried green tomato sandwiches, which we’d never had before. With all that water, there were lots of ducks and they were parading through the restaurant patio looking for handouts despite the don’t feed the animals sign.

It’s baby duck season and we found a mother and several babies wandering among the crowd after we left the restaurant.

As evening began to settle in, we went over to California Adventure. We skipped all the rides, but when to visit the cats. It turns out that Disneyland and California Adventure have a whole population of semi feral cats. I say semi because they are all neutered, given their shots and fed, but they live on their own. The first time we saw Fernando, a long hair calico, we didn’t know about all the cats and were surprised to see him hanging on a planted area near a water ride. The last time we went to the two parks, we found him in the same general area near Soarin Over California. He was smart enough to stay in the fenced off area where humans aren’t allowed. However, he did come to the fence and let me pet him. This time when we looked for him, he had a friend who looked like he or she might have been a relative. They both had the same long multi colored fur.

Our funnies cat sighting was when a black and white cat decided to relieve itself on the giant image of Mickey created out of flowers just below the train at the entrance to Disneyland.

We walked all over both parks and finished off the evening with corn chowder at an outdoor restaurant in New Orleans Square. We had skipped our usual popcorn and ice cream stops, but shared a garlic cheese bagel twist we’d never tasted before.

Yes, we did go to Buzz Lightyear and I shot up enough targets to make it to the third level. Then while the park was still open, we left. We skipped the tram and walked all the way back to the parking lot and then all the way through the parking lot to our car. There is no way to describe how huge the parking lot is. It just goes on forever.

And we made it home by 1 a.m. And then it was back to work the next day.

Planner, we definitely get our value out of our annual passes. The canoes are one of the few real things (where there isn't a track). The first time I went to Disneyland there was a mule train (with real mules) that went up Thunder Mountain which I don't think was called Thunder Mountain.